What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (7 Viewers)

[jonah]

hmmm, this is the only neil gaiman i've read and i hated every stinking word. in fact i stopped reading it about 20 pages from the end because it was so irritating. what am i missing here?

I like it an awful lot, but it wouldn't be my favourite Gaiman (American Gods!!), what don't you like about it? I will say that Richard doesn't grab me quite as much as his other protagonists, what I love about it is the characterisation of place, its immense and its something I've never been able to do at all well so I envy those who can. Go Neil!

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I've got American Gods (going cheap) in my bookshop. Call out thumpeders.

 

[jonah]

I'd buy it but I already have THIS

THATS RIGHT. AND THIS

(Thats in my journal. He broke a very nice pen, but I think it adds to it)

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

His books are great for trying to fall asleep reading.

yeah, that was pretty awful alright. if i remember correctly he went to shitty towns, met nobody interesting and saw nothing interesting so filled his book with imaginary things that might have happened but didnt instead of just not writing it at all.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

yeah, that was pretty awful alright. if i remember correctly he went to shitty towns, met nobody interesting and saw nothing interesting so filled his book with imaginary things that might have happened but didnt instead of just not writing it at all.

I dunno how he does it, on the face of it, they're crap, but when I read them I get sucked in, but not so much that I stay up all night reading. Just nicely diversionary.

 

[St. Fechin]

The other night I reread:

Joycean. The Joyce of 'Penelope'.

Last night:

Ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum. Ho hum.

Currently rereading:

Comico-eroto-gastro-politico bildungsroman.
Erm...
Bohumil Hrabal was a genius, Czech him out if you haven't already.

Failing miserably to read:

Tougher than Ulysses.
Probably not as tough as Finnegans Wake, hear that I is John?

 

[Cryptid]

Just finished this:

Some of the stories are pretty great, but as it goes on the style becomes fairly wearisome. Tbh, I was glad to be finished it. MS Found In A Bottle is deadly. http://www.classic-literature.co.uk...century/edgar-allan-poe/ms-found-in-a-bottle/

Edit: The Raven illustrated by Manet here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14082/14082-h/14082-h.htm. Nice.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

i started this recently. i don't think i want to continue reading. by far the most repellent, disturbing and downright upsetting novel i've ever read. how it was ever published i don't know.

 

[hugh]

Last night:

Ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum. Ho hum.

James Fenton always has a place in my heart as he was the side-kick to Redmond O'Hanlon for one of his travel books/expeditions - I think it was In Trouble Again. After reading it I always had this image in my head of the two of them lying on a raft drifting down the Amazon heading into who-knows-what with Fenton at the bow, reading poetry. I can just imagine Redmond O'Hanlon thinking .. "Hmmmm .... I need someone to accompany me on a highly dangerous and difficult expedition into the South American jungle where I plan to meet a remote tribe and take some extremely hazardous drugs. Will I ring Bear Gryls? No, what about that English poetry professor I am friendly with? That's the ticket!!"

edit: I could be wrong about this .. it could have been the Borneo book

i started this recently. i don't think i want to continue reading. by far the most repellent, disturbing and downright upsetting novel i've ever read. how it was ever published i don't know.

Samuel R Delany wrote some pretty fucked up stuff ....

 

[IFF]

hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

no you're not.

alas i am.

21.8% through it.

just after it's mention of Ardree for i think the 2nd time

reading it is one thing, understanding it is another but it's really about the sound of the words and it does help to read it aloud.

 

[Jim Daniels]

i started this recently. i don't think i want to continue reading. by far the most repellent, disturbing and downright upsetting novel i've ever read. how it was ever published i don't know.

I just googled that. Jesus! What made you buy it in the first place?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogg_(novel)

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The other night I reread:

ive never heard of this fella however i like admiring the covers of those vintage novels in chapters. might get one of his.

just finished The Autobiography by Bill Bruford (drummer with Yes, King Crimson and various others). Excellent, one of the best music bios that ive read. It has the general chronological details but also lots of stuff about being a drummer, the music business, technology, tour tedium etc

before that was Walcot by Brian Aldiss. Decent enough for an obsessive aldiss fans like myself, not essential though.

 

[St. Fechin]

James Fenton always has a place in my heart as he was the side-kick to Redmond O'Hanlon for one of his travel books/expeditions - I think it was In Trouble Again. After reading it I always had this image in my head of the two of them lying on a raft drifting down the Amazon heading into who-knows-what with Fenton at the bow, reading poetry. I can just imagine Redmond O'Hanlon thinking .. "Hmmmm .... I need someone to accompany me on a highly dangerous and difficult expedition into the South American jungle where I plan to meet a remote tribe and take some extremely hazardous drugs. Will I ring Bear Gryls? No, what about that English poetry professor I am friendly with? That's the ticket!!"

edit: I could be wrong about this .. it could have been the Borneo book

Ha! I'll have to track that one down. Fenton was a war correspondent for a while, so he probably knows how to take care of himself in sticky situations.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I just googled that. Jesus! What made you buy it in the first place?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogg_(novel)

well i'm interested in transgressive literature and it comes highly recommended by the likes of dennis cooper and even norman mailer, but it's waaay too much. delany is a highly regarded science fiction/fantasy author

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

im defo going to read Hogg

 

[Jim Daniels]

well i'm interested in transgressive literature and it comes highly recommended by the likes of dennis cooper and even norman mailer, but it's waaay too much. delany is a highly regarded science fiction/fantasy author

Fair enough!

 

[hugh]

Ha! I'll have to track that one down. Fenton was a war correspondent for a while, so he probably knows how to take care of himself in sticky situations.

That's right he was. I have some other piece by him in some book where he describes rolling into Saigon on a Viet Cong tank ...

 

[Cryptid]

well i'm interested in transgressive literature and it comes highly recommended by the likes of dennis cooper and even norman mailer, but it's waaay too much. delany is a highly regarded science fiction/fantasy author

It's true that Delaney is highly regarded in SF/Fantasy circles, although god knows why. He's written some true stinkers, The Fall Of The Towers being one of the worst novels I've read. Nova is the only decent one from him I've read and it's probably his straightest novel. Dhalgren is a magic realism/stream of consciousness novel he did and it's pretty painful to read. I stopped half way through.

 

[piratecore]

just read "the quiet american" by graham greene, thought it was fantastic, remember starting some of his other books when i was younger and not really getting them, have to dig em out and give them another go. wonderful book

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The English Vice: Beating, Sex and Shame in Victorian England and After by Ian Gibson.

A sometimes tedious but mostly fascinating look at the fondness english people have for having their bottoms spanked. as far as i can tell there seems to be a vicious circle involved whereby youngsters are beaten at school, get mightily turned on by this and carry on the tradition when they grow up. also, toilet training by stern nannies and governesses during the sadistic-anal phase of childhood seems to be important as does an aggression towards the breasts of the mother which is subverted into guilt and a corresponding desire to have ones buttocks birched as buttocks look a bit like boobs anyway.